Cosmology: The Origin, Evolution & Ultimate Fate of the Universe

An Introductory Resource Guidefor College Instructors

An all-sky image of the Cosmic Microwave Background (Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration)

NASA missions, educational projects around the country, and cosmologists themselves have produced a wide range of materials that astronomy instructors (and their students) can use to learn about the latest developments in modern cosmology. Too often, however, these materials go unused because instructors are not familiar with them or don’t have them accessible at the time that they need them. This annotated guide is designed to highlight useful materials on the web and in print. It was produced in consultation with a panel of Astronomy 101 instruc­tors, who were interviewed about their teaching, and NASA education specialists, who suggested resources that may not have been well known.

Cosmology is an enormous field, and the number of educational resources can be a bit overwhelming. This guide includes only a sampling of non-technical materials that instructors around the U.S. have been using and are likely to have access to. Items were selected based on their level of difficulty (Astro 101 level and below), the likelihood of easy access by a college audience, and their potential usefulness for teaching and learning.

Compiled by Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College and Astronomical Society of the Pacific)

Everyday Cosmology: http://cosmology.carnegiescience.edu/ (An educational website from the Carnegie Observatories with a timeline of cosmological discovery, background materials, and activities.)

Great Debates in Astronomy: http://apod.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/debate.html (Between 1995 and 1998, astronomers Robert Nemiroff & Jerry Bonnell put together some cosmological debates in the same hall at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History (and along the same lines) as the Shapley-Curtis debate, with some of the leading cosmologists of our day; sometimes technical)

Runaway Universe (2000 NOVA TV series episode web site): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/universe/ (Focuses on the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe, using supernovae as distance indicators)

Brent Tully’s “How Big is the Universe?”: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/how-big-universe.html (This clear essay by a noted astronomer summarizes some key ideas in cosmologist and introduces the notion of the acceleration of the universe; it was written for the Runaway Universe program)

Pie charts showing the mass and energy contents of the universe as refined by the Planck mission (right) from the WMAP results (left) (Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration)

Cosmic Times Project (from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center): http://cosmictimes.gsfc.nasa.gov/ (James Lochner and Barbara Mattson have compiled a rich resource of 20th-century cosmology history in the form of news reports on key events)

Cosmic Journey: A History of Scientific Cosmology (from the American Institute of Physics Center for the History of Physics): http://www.aip.org/history/cosmology/ (a web “exhibit” on the history of our thinking, with images and biographies)

Marcia Bartusiak: “The Day We Found the Universe” (May 21, 2009; the distinguished science writer discusses Hubble’s work and the discovery of the expansion of the cosmos — one of the Observatory Night lectures at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics): http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/mon_video_archive09.html

Brian Schmidt’s non-technical Nobel Prize lecture about discovering the acceleration of the universe (Dec. 8, 2011); on the same page, you can find links to the lectures by Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter, which connect to and follow his: http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1727

BOOKS

Artist’s illustration of the COBE satellite in orbit around the Earth (Credit: NASA)

Selected Books about Modern Cosmology

Adams, Fred & Laughlin, Greg The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity. 1999, Free Press. Two astronomers consider the distant past and far future.

Carroll, Sean From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time. 2010, Plume Books. On modern ideas of time as they relate to cosmology.

Duncan, Todd & Tyler, Craig Your Cosmic Context: An Introduction to Modern Cosmology. 2009, Addison-Wesley/Pearson. The first non-majors textbook on cosmology done without a lot of math.

Ferris, Timothy The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe Report. 1997, Simon & Schuster. A distinguished science journalist reports on cosmology, as of the mid 1990’s. Full of good analogies and profiles of the key scientists.

Greene, Brian The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality. 2004, Knopf. An introduction to some of the physics ideas behind our modern picture of cosmology, by a physicist who is a master explainer.

Harrison, Edward Cosmology: The Science of the Universe, 2nd ed. 2000, Cambridge U. Press. This literate and thought-provoking introductory textbook, using some math, is one of the best guides to thinking about cosmology.

Impey, Chris How it Began: A Time Traveler’s Guide to the Universe. 2012, W. W. Norton. A tour of the universe, moving outward from Earth and back in time, with well-written sections on modern cosmology.

Kirshner, Robert The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Universe. 2002, Princeton U. Press. A readable, personal recounting of the use of supernovae in the discovery of dark energy and our new view of the universe.

Livio, Mario The Accelerating Universe: Infinite Expansion, the Cosmological Constant, and the Beauty of the Cosmos. 2000, John Wiley. Beautifully written, layperson’s introduction to key cosmological ideas of our day.

Panek, Richard The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality. 2011, Houghton Mifflin. A journalist recounts the story of the discovery of the acceleration of the universe in this widely praised account.

Nussbaumer, Harry & Bieri, Lydia Discovering the Expanding Universe. 2009, Cambridge U. Press. Carefully researched, detailed history of both the theory and the observations that led to our modern day view.

ARTICLES

The Hubble Space Telescope in orbit around the Earth (Credit: NASA)

Overview Articles

Kruesi, L. “Cosmology: 5 Things You Need to Know” in Astronomy, May 2007, p. 28. Five questions students often ask, and how modern cosmologists answer them.

Pendrick, D. “Is the Big Bang in Trouble?” in Astronomy, Apr. 2009, p. 48. This sensationally titled article is really more of a quick review of how modern ideas and observations are fleshing out the big bang hypothesis (and raising questions.)

Turner, M. “The Origin of the Universe” in Scientific American, Sep. 2009, p. 36. An introduction to modern cosmology.

Wakeley, S. “The Universe is in the Details” in Astronomy, Sep. 2006, p. 42. 5-page overview of how particle physics can assist cosmology.

Chart illustrating three potential fates of our Universe according to theories of dark energy (Credit: NASA/STScI)

Articles about Dark Energy and Acceleration

Appell, D. “Dark Forces at Work” in Scientific American, May 2008, p. 100. A profile of Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter, the leader of one of the teams whose work with supernovae led to the discovery of the universe’s acceleration.

Ferris, T. “Inflating the Cosmos” in Astronomy, July 1997, p. 38. On the inflationary hypothesis.

Guth, A. and Steinhardt, P. “The Inflationary Universe” in Scientific American, May 1984, p. 116. Early report from the scientist who came up with the idea.

Nadis, S. “Sizing Up Inflation” in Sky & Telescope, Nov. 2005, p. 32. Nice review of the origin and modern variants on the inflationary idea.

Comparison of observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in 10-square-degree patches from (from left to right) COBE, WMAP, and Planck. The comparison illustrates how the resolution of these images improves with each successor (left to right). (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA)

Dorminey, B. “Europe’s Space Revolution” in Astronomy, Sep. 2008, p. 28. Preview of Herschel and Planck missions and how they will study the CMB.

Hishaw, G. & Naeye, R. “Decoding the Oldest Light in the Universe” in Sky & Telescope, May 2008, p. 18. How the WMAP mission uses acoustic waves in the CMB to probe the structure of the early universe.

Starkman, G. & Schwarz, D. “Is the Universe out of Tune?” in Scientific American, Aug. 2005, p. 48. On discrepancies between the theory and observations of the harmonics of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Frank, A. “How the Big Bang Forged the First Elements” in Astronomy, Oct. 2007, p. 32. On how the hot phase of the big bang synthesized elements, and what their abundance today can tell us about the properties of the universe.

Frank, A. “The First Billion Years” in Astronomy, June 2006, p. 30. On the early eras in cosmic history and the formation of structure.

Hellemans, A. “Understanding Antimatter” in Astronomy, Aug. 2011, p. 24. On the discovery of antimatter and its relationship to cosmology.

Jayawardhana, Ray “Does Antimatter Matter?” in Astronomy, Dec. 2006, p. 30. On how matter came to dominate in the early universe.

Artist’s drawing of the largest telescope built by William Herschel, who made significant progress in understanding the structure of the Universe, as we knew it, in the 1700s. (Credit: Wikimedia public domain images; scanned from Leisure Hour, Nov. 2, 1867, page 729)

Wallace, C., Prather, E., and Duncan D. 2012 “A Study of General Education Astronomy Students’ Understandings of Cosmology. Part V. The Effects of a New Suite of Cosmology Lecture-Tutorials on Students’ Conceptual Knowledge,” International Journal of Science Education, 34(9), 1297. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500693.2012.677960

Wallace, C. and Prather, E. 2012, “Teaching Physics with Hubble’s Law and Dark Matter,” American Journal of Physics, 80(5), 382.

Notes

This Guide is intended to support the higher education community by making relevant NASA Science Mission Directorate E/PO materials and other resources of potential interest easier to find. NASA-supported education products have passed NASA’s Education Product Review. The selection of non-NASA materials and any opinions expressed in the Guide are those of the compiler, and do not imply endorsement by NASA or the Astrophysics Science Education and Public Outreach Forum.

Comments about the Cosmology Resource Guide and the needs of the astrophysics higher education community can be directed to the Astrophysics Forum Liaison to the NASA Science Mission Directorate Higher Education Working Group: Greg Schultz (Astronomical Society of the Pacific), gschultz {at} astrosociety.org.

Acknowledgements

The Cosmology Resource Guide was produced in collaboration with the NASA Astrophysics education and public outreach (E/PO) community. We also gratefully acknowledge the Astronomy 101 instructors whose input on the needs of the higher education community helped shape this Guide.

Contributing NASA Astrophysics E/PO programs include: Astronomy Picture of the Day, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, the NASA Goddard Astrophysics Science Division, the Planck mission, the Sonoma State University E/PO group (Fermi, NuSTAR, Swift, XMM-Newton, Using the Big Ideas in Cosmology), the former Structure and Evolution of the Universe Education Forum, the University of Arizona / JPL Exoplanet Exploration Program Center for Astronomy Education, the University of Chicago E/PO group, and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).

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